3-D Tabletop Display Gets Rid of the Glasses

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3-D Tabletop Display Gets Rid of the Glasses

A handheld cube-shaped display promises to offer all the thrills of 3-D without the annoyance of the glasses. The device called pCubee arranges five LCD screens into a box-like shape so viewers can pick it up, watch content or play with virtual objects inside.

Weighing in at about three pounds, pCubee gives users a chance to poke and prod objects virtually using a stylus. You can shake the cube, tilt it or interact with a touchscreen, all while retaining the 3-D experience.

"Most people think 3-D is all about stereo and having alternating frames to help the brain perceive depth," says Sidney Fels, who leads the Human Communication Technologies Lab at the University of British Columbia, where the project was designed. "What we wanted to offer is a fish-tank-like experience in a handheld device."

A wave of successful 3-D movies such as Avatar and Alice in Wonderland have spurred interest in bringing the 3-D viewing experience closer to consumers. Major consumer electronics companies such as Samsung, LG and Panasonic have started selling 3-D TVs that are fundamentally based on the principle of stereoscopy. Stereoscopy involves presenting a slightly different image to each eye of the same scene so when the brain fuses those images, it perceives depth. That also means viewers have to wear glasses for the 3-D effect.

A different principle called motion parallax is at work in the pCubee. Motion parallax is the apparent change in position of an object, depending on the distance from which you view it. It's a very effective cue for 3-D, says Fels.

"Our brains are wired to perceive motion parallax and interpret it as 3-D," he says. "It's one of the reasons why even if you have just one eye, you can do reasonably well with depth in the real world."

The pCubee's design helps the brain interpret this better.

"The fact that it is handheld greatly increases motion parallax," says Ian Stavness, one of the researchers who worked on the project. "If it were fixed to the desk, you would have to move your head around and it would not be so comfortable."

And as the video shows, pCubee is fun and easy to use.

The pCubee has three graphics pipelines that drive the screens on the sides of the box. A motion tracker watches the pCubee and the user's head. The software that powers the device ensures that the user's view of the box and the rendered perspective on each screen are in sync.

Fels says his team is looking to commercialize pCubee so it can be in the hands of consumers. The team is looking to improve the design and refine it by experimenting with OLED screens to replace the LCD panels that are being used currently.

"The pCubee can be used as a game platform, a CAD-CAM platform and in museums," says Fels. "We imagine this as something that would be on everybody's coffee table."